In 2010, Germany produced more than 5.5 million automobiles; the U.S produced 2.7 million. At the same time, the average auto worker in Germany made $67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour. Yet Germany’s big three car companies—BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz ), and Volkswagen—are very profitable.

How can that be? The question is explored in a new article from Remapping Debate, a public policy e-journal. Its author, Kevin C. Brown, writes that “the salient difference is that, in Germany, the automakers operate within an environment that precludes a race to the bottom; in the U.S., they operate within an environment that encourages such a race.”

The alarm goes off, Barack Obama looks at the clock radio, and realizes it’s Groundhog Day again…
Each day, every week, month after month, the character assassination continues. Anything he does serves that purpose. The topic hardly matters anymore. Whether Benghazi, the Affordable Care Act, or even saluting with a cup of coffee in the other hand; the singular intent here is to distract the nation: distract so nothing important gets done. Everything couched in Watergate rhetoric: what did he know, when did he know it…
But this isn’t unusual. This isn’t Barack Obama specific, though both the left and the right act like it is. We’ve been here before. Read more

Mate a manta ray with a jet plane and you get the Manta Ray, one of the rarest cars in existence. In fact, it’s so rare that there is only one in existence, and it just so happens to be owned by D.E. Lacter of D.E.L. Motors. The one-of-a-kind car has been in the Lacer family since 1959, and it recently garnered the attention of “Chasing Classic Cars,” a nationally-televised show which will showcase the custom Manta Ray car on a future episode.

Wayne Carini, the host of the show, stopped by Lacer’s auto warehouse yesterday with a shooting crew to check out the Manta Ray, which is a car that was custom made by two aeronautical engineers in California back in the 50’s. The car features a handmade fiberglass body which is molded in 14 sections. It was constructed on a modified 1951 Studebaker chassis. The designers of the car were focused more on appearance than performance, so the bulky V8 engine of the Studebaker remained. In total, the Manta Ray took 4,200 hours to complete.

The design duo had plans to begin a small scale production of the Manta Ray, but it never took off, which is why only one of the vehicle’s exists. The duo’s work did not go unnoticed, however. The designers received a special trophy for the car at 1954 L.A. Auto Show, and they were also rewarded a cash reward from a local newspaper for “Outstanding Creativeness and Engineering.” The duo sold the car after auto dealer Bob Yeakel fell in love with it at the Auto Show. From there, it was sold to L.L. Lacer, who passed it on to his wife, who then passed it on to D.E.

After several decades of self-proclaimed “nation building” and “exporting democracy” in the Middle East and its environs, the results are all too clear. There are shattered nations in Iraq and Afghanistan, failed states in Yemen, Libya and Syria, and more than a dozen African nations that the U.S. State Department concedes are under constant threat of attack by well-armed and organized terrorists.

Is it possible that what the U.S. has actually been doing in these hot spots is “terrorism building” and “exporting chaos”? Is this the awful truth the United States cannot bring itself to admit?